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Canada's national weekly current affairs magazineMon, 03 Aug 2015 00:25:17 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2Quebec’s ‘Maple Spring': An isolated event, or dawn of youth power in politics?http://www.macleans.ca/general/quebecs-maple-spring-an-isolated-event-or-dawn-of-youth-power-in-politics/
http://www.macleans.ca/general/quebecs-maple-spring-an-isolated-event-or-dawn-of-youth-power-in-politics/#commentsTue, 01 Jan 2013 16:17:30 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=329855What started as a protest over provincial tuition hikes became political game changer.

]]>MONTREAL — It simmered as a provincial dispute over tuition-fee hikes before exploding into a massive movement that grabbed the world’s attention.

Not only did Quebec’s boisterous, and sometimes violent, student unrest of 2012 lead to the cancellation of the tuition increases, it also ignited a wider social-justice movement.

The historic uprising dubbed the Maple Spring eventually faded away as the seasons changed, along with the government — but was this a harbinger of the political awakening of a new generation?

One of the most-prominent figures of the movement believes the students’ success has forever marked a crop of Canadian youth.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, the spokesman of the hardline CLASSE student group during the uprising, recently completed a cross-Canada tour to speak to young activists in more than a half-dozen cities.

The first question he said he usually fielded from people he met was: “How did you do that?”

How did a demographic group so frequently derided as apathetic, and so often absent from the political discussion, force itself to the epicentre of the public debate?

Protesters managed to make themselves, and tuition fees, a major election issue in a province where youth voter turnout had plummeted by half from the early 1990s to 2008.

That long-term trend exists across the country. In Canada, youth have had the lowest voting percentage of any age group in federal elections — raising the question of whether such a phenomenon could ever be repeated in other provinces.

Nadeau-Dubois said that during his cross-Canada tour he tried offering students hope by explaining that, while there were unique conditions in Quebec, the Maple Spring was propelled in part by broader international protests against government austerity.

It was also fuelled by hard work and more than a year of preparation, he said he told them.

“If you are able to convince the people that it is possible to mobilize and to make a difference… I think that the population will go a lot more in the street,” Nadeau-Dubois, who has become a household name in Quebec, told The Canadian Press in an interview.

Nadeau-Dubois said even though he hopes to encourage activists across the country, he doesn’t predict places outside Quebec to suddenly see similar-sized demonstrations consuming their jurisdictions.

“I always say social movements are not like peanut butter — you cannot think that it’s possible to simply spread them all over a country,” he said.

“What I hope is that it will give courage to the activists in the rest of Canada to say, ‘It’s possible here, too, so let’s get to work.’ ”

Nadeau-Dubois feels the country’s next big protest movement could eventually materialize in Western Canada, where he said he listened to many concerns about the ecological impact of oilsands development.

To date, however, there have been very few signs of a comparable mobilization elsewhere in Canada.

The lack of similar protests in other provinces is surprising for an Ontario-based scholar who has studied social movements since the 1960s.

Vincent Mosco said, for example, that Ontario invests less per-capita in higher education than most jurisdictions in North America. Yet, compared to Quebec, Ontario’s tuition rates remain high.

“It is puzzling to me because the conditions for students outside of Quebec are arguably worse than for students inside Quebec,” said Mosco, professor emeritus in sociology at Queen’s University.

Mosco believes there is a unique situation in Quebec.

He credits Quebec’s student organizations with traditionally wielding more power and unity than Ontario’s. Mosco also thinks Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty did a better job than former Quebec premier Jean Charest of easing tuition-fee hikes into the picture.

He said it’s difficult to predict whether social movements elsewhere will draw inspiration from Quebec protesters’ success in cancelling the tuition increases.

“There’s nothing that motivates people more than success and my sense is that the students — at least (those) who were involved — have a great deal more confidence than they did before,” Mosco said.

For months, student-union strikes forced numerous school closures, while a barrage of regular protests frequently snarled road traffic and triggered clashes between protesters and riot police, mostly in Montreal.

Even one of the most active opponents of the protests agreed that the Maple Spring an eye-opener for his generation.

Laurent Proulx, a university student who was the first to win a court injunction to have one of his classrooms reopened, said it also taught those who opposed the movement that they could defend their rights.

“There was a political awakening — that is certain,” said Proulx, a former soldier who served in Afghanistan.

“There was one for both sides (of the debate).”

Proulx convinced a Quebec Superior court judge that the strikes, declared by various student associations after votes at public assemblies, should not be able to keep him from going to one of his classes.

He said dozens of injunctions were won in court by students demanding their right to go to class.

If there’s ever a next time, Proulx said, the legal research has been done — meaning a similar court challenge would take days, instead of weeks, to prepare.

Proulx was among a silent majority in a noisy spring.

In fact, roughly two-thirds of Quebec students were not on a declared strike from their classrooms and were not necessarily participating in daily marches against tuition hikes.

The demonstrations were stoked by opposition to the Liberal government’s proposal to boost tuition rates by $325 per year, over five years. The government later tweaked the planned increases to $254 per year, over seven years.

Even though the hike still would have left Quebec with some of the lowest tuition in Canada, many students insisted they were drawing a line in the sand out of principle.

Some demanded a freeze to keep fees from creeping toward the much-pricier rates in other provinces, let alone those seen in the U.S. Others called education a right that should be free, just like in some European countries.

One thing the protesters had in common: They viewed the tuition hikes as unnecessary, and as a case of misplaced priorities.

Yes, Quebec is the most indebted province in Canada. But the additional $265 million that would have been raised through the tuition hikes was actually a miniscule fraction — 0.003 per cent — of the province’s overall $69 billion budget.

Protesters argued that Quebec had the money to freeze rates. They said cheap tuition made more sense as a public investment than the billions doled out each year in business subsidies, for everything from Montreal aerospace jobs to a Quebec City hockey arena.

So from February through September the province was politically paralyzed by a street battle over 0.003 per cent of the provincial budget.

Things quieted down when the Liberal government was turfed in a Sept. 4 provincial election. That electoral outcome has prompted some protest leaders to claim that they made history by helping to overthrow a government.

But did they?

The scandal-plagued Charest Liberals were so deeply unpopular that polls throughout the year suggested they could be wiped off the map in non-Anglo areas of the province.

Polls also suggested their tuition policy had strong enough popular support that the opposition Parti Quebecois stopped wearing their red protest squares as the election approached.

In the end, the Liberals campaigned on the tuition issue and they wound up losing by only four seats and by less than one percentage point of the popular vote. They had held the PQ to a minority.

Last week, new Premier Pauline Marois appeared on the popular talk show Tout le monde en parle and was asked whether her support of the students had cost her a majority government.

Marois’ reply: “Maybe.”

But she said it was a government’s duty to listen and to ensure social peace. She reversed the hikes, tuition was restored at the Canada-low rate of $2,168 per year, and calm returned to the streets.

She has proposed indexing any future increases to the rate of inflation and has scheduled a February summit to examine how best to fund Quebec’s universities.

The next battle line between the province and students could be drawn at free education.

Monthly demonstrations, held on the 22nd of every month, have not stopped, though the numbers are considerably smaller than last spring.

Some 1,000 protesters marched through Montreal on Nov. 22 to call for change on many environmental and social concerns — but their demand for free post-secondary education remained the No. 1 issue.

One protester said cheaper education would contribute to fighting poverty and help her generation manage future challenges, such as the looming health crisis linked to aging baby boomers.

“We feel like we’re being blocked, cornered,” said Université de Montreal sociology student Audrey Morin, raising her voice to be heard over a protest leader’s speech into a microphone.

“I have the impression that we are a new generation that wants to mobilize, that will be present, and that will seek the right to vote and the right to have a say in what’s going on.”

As the Maple Spring gained momentum, tuition hikes became just one component of the protests. The nightly marches attracted people espousing causes that ranged from anti-capitalism to environmentalism, anarchism, labour rights, and Quebec independence.

The movement inspired similar protests as far as New York and Paris.

Back in Canada, Nadeau-Dubois said he expects the student unrest to leave behind a legacy of activism.

“The hundreds of thousands of students who mobilized this spring will continue to be mobilized — not only on the campus, but also in their communities, in their workplace,” said Nadeau-Dubois, who is completing a major in sociology and history at Université du Quebec a Montreal.

“They will continue to be mobilized and to fight for social justice and for equality, and I think that’s very good news to see that the young generation of this province is really concerned by the political issues,” he said.

The protesters said they were fighting for democracy.

But, as their critics pointed out at the time, by breaking laws and ignoring court injunctions, many members of the movement thumbed their noses at two of the three branches of democratic government — the legislature and judiciary.

Many demonstrations were marked by smashed windows, Molotov cocktails and violent showdowns between protesters and riot police.

Nadeau-Dubois left his post as CLASSE spokesman in August, saying at that the time that he was tired of being demonized as a quasi-terrorist.

In a letter announcing his departure, an angry Nadeau-Dubois accused the government of tarnishing his reputation.

He was recently convicted of contempt of court and is awaiting a sentence. The case stems from an allegation that he encouraged students to ignore a court injunction handed down in Quebec City while doing a television interview last May.

But his supporters have also been vocal.

So far, he said he has raised more than $100,000 in donations — all from individual contributions — to fund his legal fight to appeal the contempt verdict.

“We were not in school during the spring, but I think we learned a lot — and I think that we have learned more than ever in our life.”

]]>http://www.macleans.ca/general/quebecs-maple-spring-an-isolated-event-or-dawn-of-youth-power-in-politics/feed/2Harper boasts of accomplishments for 2012, NDP has different takehttp://www.macleans.ca/general/harper-boasts-of-accomplishments-for-2012-ndp-has-different-take/
http://www.macleans.ca/general/harper-boasts-of-accomplishments-for-2012-ndp-has-different-take/#commentsMon, 31 Dec 2012 18:07:44 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=332456OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper is ending the year by listing his government’s achievements in 2012, but the Opposition is pointing to several low-lights.
In a statement, Harper says…

]]>http://www.macleans.ca/general/harper-boasts-of-accomplishments-for-2012-ndp-has-different-take/feed/8CP names Mark Carney business newsmaker of the yearhttp://www.macleans.ca/general/cp-names-mark-carney-business-newsmaker-of-the-year/
http://www.macleans.ca/general/cp-names-mark-carney-business-newsmaker-of-the-year/#commentsSun, 30 Dec 2012 13:32:16 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=332312OTTAWA – Whether as a rising star on the world stage or a central banker under scrutiny amid suggestions of political impropriety at home, it was hard to ignore Mark…

]]>OTTAWA – Whether as a rising star on the world stage or a central banker under scrutiny amid suggestions of political impropriety at home, it was hard to ignore Mark Carney in 2012.

Canada’s omnipresent Bank of Canada governor was constantly making headlines.

If he wasn’t hectoring households for not saving enough, he was blasting business leaders for saving too much, or weighing in on the contentious issue of whether Canada’s economy was showing symptoms of Dutch disease.

As well, he continued to press global financial institutions to reform in the wake of the carnage they caused in triggering the crisis of 2008, warning that as head of the Swiss-based Financial Stability Board he intends to use all his powers to make sure they do.

And then there was that head-turning job switch — the first non-Brit to be named governor of the Bank of England in the storied institution’s 318-year history. The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne called the Canadian the “outstanding central banker of his generation.”

Even admirers back home wondered if Mark Carney was worth such adulation.

Recent revelations that he may have entertained thoughts of dumping one of the more exalted and non-partisan public offices to jump into the ring as a Liberal leadership contestant have elicited a different kind of head-turning, and raised questions about his judgment.

Even before that recent media splash, the central banker was the clear choice in the annual survey of editors and broadcasters for The Canadian Press Business Newsmaker of the Year.

The governor pulled in 59 per cent of votes, compared to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s eight, and nine for Pierre Duhaime, the disgraced former head of SNC-Lavalin. Second spot, at 17 per cent of the votes, wasn’t even a person, per se. It went to “The Canadian in Debt.”

“Canada’s top exports: Lumber, oil, water, wheat, and Mark Carney,” explained Rick Hughes, business editor of the Hamilton Spectator, for his choice.

“His role as bank governor is noted for his good counsel and stability, and Britain’s banking system will be well-served under his leadership. He offers the best that Canada’s develops: stability, democracy, and one other thing … he’s a hockey player.”

While Daniel Tencer, business editor at The Huffington Post Canada, opined that “Carney’s contribution to Canada’s relatively strong economic performance in recent years is probably overblown,” he was nevertheless compelled to cast his vote for the central banker.

“It’s so rare for a central bank governor (especially a Canadian one) to become an international household name that that alone makes Carney’s ‘achievement’ significant.”

And Richard Dettman of Vancouver’s CKWX News1130 saw the honour as one rightfully shared with Carney and the fiscal and monetary policies of the Bank of Canada and the federal Finance Department.

The annual survey also named personal debt as the top Business Story of 2012 — not surprising in a year when the household-debt-to-income ratio rose to a record high of 164.6 per cent.

While personal debt garnered 24 per cent of the vote, CNOOC buying Calgary’s Nexen for $15.1 billion came in at a close 20, and Research In Motion’s bumpy ride to releasing the BlackBerry 10 operating system and devices in January garnered 19 per cent.

Carney, for his part, kept personal debt in the headlines with his repeated warnings to Canadians that cheap money won’t last forever — interest rates will eventually rise.

The shine surrounding Carney throughout 2012 was at threat of being tarnished, however, with the late year surfacing of tales of political courtship.

Carney was cleared of conflict of interest in accepting to stay at Liberal finance critic Scott Brison’s Nova Scotia summer house, by the bank’s own general counsel. But he has more than disappointed — in some cases angered — senior people in the Harper government.

The silence from Flaherty, who had called Carney “my friend” in November during the Bank of England announcement, spoke volumes.

Given repeated chances to defend the man he hand-picked in 2008 for one of the country’s most exalted public offices, Flaherty held his tongue. “I have no comment on any of that,” he told reporters, more than once, “and I usually have comments on everything.”

Some in London also are wondering if they got the man they bargained for.

“He’ll have to be far more careful over here — no riding with (Prime Minister David) Cameron or skiing with Osborne,” Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman Matthew Oakeshott told British media. Others said Carney would get a rough ride on Feb. 7 at the parliamentary confirmation hearings.

Many bank watchers believe the Teflon coat that Carney has worn since becoming governor in February of 2008 has been dented, if not pierced.

Carney may not have technically crossed the line, but, “here’s a case where, in my view, there’s a clear apparent conflict of interest,” said Mike Moffatt, assistant professor at the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business.

He notes that Carney delivered a much-publicized dismantling of the Dutch disease diagnosis favoured by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, who had cited Alberta’s oil boom and subsequent appreciation of the Canadian dollar for much of the troubles experienced by manufacturers in central Canada.

The speech was delivered on Sept. 7, at the time Carney was being wooed by the Liberals.

“We’re now having to look at monetary policy and the speeches he makes through a political lens. That’s a question you never want to ask about the Bank of Canada, they should be above politics.”

Carney retains many high-powered supporters, including Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and Glen Hodgson, senior vice-president of the Conference Board of Canada.

Hodgson believes Carney should be ranked along with Ben Bernanke of the U.S. Federal Reserve and Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank, among the best examples of central bankers.

“(These) central bankers were essentially the heroes of the recession,” he said. “Mark stepping in, unlocking the whole commercial paper market was an example of where he had a really sharp pencil.”

Martin says he was an admirer of Carney’s predecessor David Dodge and believes the current governor has performed as admirably under more difficult circumstances.

“David Dodge wasn’t put in the really nasty situation that Mark Carney was, so you don’t know what he would have done. (But) Carney was and he acted in a way people would say in retrospect was pretty exemplary — he was firm, acted rather than hoped things would be fine, and Canada has fared quite well.”

Martin hasn’t reappraised Carney since the controversy, and says there is no need to.

That Liberal operatives should have courted Carney for the leadership is an indication that he is “good,” he said. “We don’t know whether he was serious at all or merely pleasant in saying you can talk to me.”

For his part, Carney has said he has been courted by other parties as well, and did not actively pursue the offers.

One reason such issues have arisen with Carney, says Martin, is that he is extremely young for a central banker — 47 — and expects to have an active career after leaving the Bank of Canada, or now the Bank of England. For most of his older predecessors, being named governor was the crowning achievement of their long careers.

Aside from the political flirtation — and the jury is still out on how serious it was — Carney’s year was productive and praiseworthy, but not necessarily perfect, some analysts say.

Bank of Montreal deputy chief economist Doug Porter says Carney “deserves the plaudits” he is getting, with a few quibbles, including his overly rosy reading of the Canadian economy and the signal in March he was readying to raise rates. He has since backtracked on both counts, although many consider his forecasts still too optimistic.

But Carney’s year has been about much more than just monetary policy. He has spoken out on all the major issues of the economy, Canadian and global, in a way perhaps only Dodge felt comfortable doing.

“Where he made news, aside from his career change, were in some of the key speeches this year; hectoring households to control their debt, or agitating businesses to get off the cash hordes, or pooh-poohing Dutch disease,” said Porter.

“He had a pretty active year on the economic front.”

Some of Carnery’s comments have drawn fire, but as Martin pointed out, you don’t have an impact by playing it safe.

With Carney due to take over the Bank of England next July, there is little chance his profile will diminish.

Moffatt believes the Canadian is even more suited for the England challenge than what he faced in Canada.

“He’s done a very strong job at the FSB (Financial Stability Board), and that’s more what the Bank of England needs. What England needs right now is to reform their entire financial system … and Carney is the obvious choice to fix that.”

]]>http://www.macleans.ca/general/cp-names-mark-carney-business-newsmaker-of-the-year/feed/0Toronto man who fundraised for bullied bus monitor hopes to sustain the goodwillhttp://www.macleans.ca/general/toronto-man-who-fundraised-for-bullied-bus-monitor-hopes-to-sustain-the-goodwill/
http://www.macleans.ca/general/toronto-man-who-fundraised-for-bullied-bus-monitor-hopes-to-sustain-the-goodwill/#commentsThu, 27 Dec 2012 16:47:34 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=331842TORONTO – You could call it a case of empathy gone viral.
When a Toronto man stumbled upon a YouTube video of a 68-year-old bus monitor in New York State…

When a Toronto man stumbled upon a YouTube video of a 68-year-old bus monitor in New York State being bullied to tears by a group of middle schoolers, he felt compelled to act, triggering an online fundraising campaign which surpassed his expectations and raised thousands.

Now, all Max Sidorov wants is for the outpouring of goodwill to continue in some way.

“When it happened, I was just like, how can I make something even bigger come about, something even more positive,” he says.

In September, the 26-year-old was able to present a cheque for just over $700,000 to Karen Klein, after donations flooded in from around the world to send the grandmother of eight on a vacation.

The tremendous response to what was his first fundraising effort has prompted Sidorov to kickstart two new campaigns which he hopes will see similar levels of success.

In March, he hopes to accompany Quinton Aaron – who starred as a football player in the 2009 film, “The Blind Side” – on an international anti-bullying tour connected with the actor’s foundation. The campaign hopes to interact with victims and their bullies in an effort to promote acts of kindness and pinpoint the issues that trigger the bullying.

Closer to home, Sidorov is also launching his own website – lovedeeder.com – which he hopes will be a social media platform to help people participate in or start up fundraising and charitable efforts.

“People can post comments, get points. It’s going to be like competitive do-gooding,” says Sidorov, who has poured his own savings into the project.

The website is partly a product of the intense feedback he received in the aftermath of his fundraising campaign for Klein. Sidorov recalls being bombarded with emails asking for his advice on everything from financial issues to health matters.

“Hundreds of people ask for help and it’s just physically impossible to help everyone. I do the best I can,” he says. “This is why I want to take this bigger, because everyone needs a voice.”

Sidorov is all too aware, however, of the challenges of sustaining charitable momentum.

“That’s always on my mind, how will I be able to keep this issue in people’s minds and at the forefront,” he says, adding that the connectivity offered by the Internet is a boon. “The social aspect is hugely important.”

Even as his projects grow bigger in scope, however, combating bullying remains at the core of Sidorov’s efforts.

“It is something that hits close to home,” he admits. “When I came from Ukraine to Canada, I was bullied in school…I was always a small kid, I was picked on.”

Years later, witnessing someone being taunted makes Sidorov feel he has to act.

“It was just a spur of the moment thing,” he says of his decision to start a campaign on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo after watching the clip of Klein crying as she was being tormented with insults.

“I felt really sad for this lady. I couldn’t believe it. And I was like, you know what? She doesn’t deserve that.”

Realizing how big a response a fundraising effort as simple as his could generate is what Sidorov now wants to share.

“If you have a good idea, if you’re passionate about this idea, just go out and do it,” he says. “If the idea comes from a place of love and kindness, all the doors will open.”

]]>http://www.macleans.ca/general/toronto-man-who-fundraised-for-bullied-bus-monitor-hopes-to-sustain-the-goodwill/feed/012 top business quotes of 2012http://www.macleans.ca/economy/business/12-top-business-quotes-of-2012/
http://www.macleans.ca/economy/business/12-top-business-quotes-of-2012/#commentsThu, 27 Dec 2012 12:26:35 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=331792Who said what ... and why

]]>TORONTO – Business speak isn’t always serious. Here’s a look at 12 of the top business quotes of 2012:

“It is like negotiating with the monkey with the organ grinder standing behind you with the sword of Damocles over your head.” — Capt. Paul Strachan, president of the Air Canada Pilots Association in March on how the government undermines the collective bargaining process when it intervenes.

———

“I did my own reality check on where the entire company really is … It’s now very clear to me that substantial change is what RIM needs.” — Newly installed Research In Motion (TSX:RIM) CEO Thorsten Heins following the announcement in March that Jim Balsillie was leaving the company.

———

“This is not Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola with some formula of how to make the fructose. This is railroading.” — New Canadian Pacific CEO Hunter Harrison in July, speaking to concerns he would leak confidential information from former employer and rival Canadian National.

———

“If I knew I was in a Turkish bazaar, I wouldn’t have put my best foot forward. I feel like a fool.” — Juergen Kuhn, the head of business development for MTU Aero Engines, the losing-bidder for Aveos’s liquidation of its engine repair business, testifying in Quebec court in August and characterizing last minute negotiations with winner Lufthansa Technik as unprofessional.

———

“As far as trade is concerned, Canadian businessmen don’t know who Pussy Riot are.” — Konstantin Trofimov, Russia’s trade commissioner to Canada, speaking in August of the potential that the jailing of punk band Pussy Riot would discourage Canadian businesses from pursuing opportunities in his country.

———

“It’s sweet apples and sour berries on the same day… it’s just ironic … of all the bad luck.” John Pliniussen, professor at Queen’s University School of Business on RIM’s BlackBerry outage the same day as Apple’s iPhone 5 was released in September.

———

“We’ll still get there. I’ve written the book. Y’all just gotta get to the right chapter here.” — Canadian Pacific CEO Hunter Harrision speaking about the railroad’s performance during the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call in October.

———

“The culture is very similar. Similar dreams. Similar aspirations.” Leon’s chairman Mark Leon, commenting on the company’s move to acquire rival The Brick in November.

———

“The fact is, the smartphone market has changed in the last 24 months and RIM is not only late to the party, the party has moved to a different location and RIM is showing up at the wrong house.” — Analyst Brian Blair of New York’s Wedge Partners, remarking that rising expectations for the BlackBerry 10 provided false hope for RIM’s investors in November.

———

“Why not become a circus clown?” — Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney acknowledging in October that he was approached by the Liberals to run for the party leadership, but maintaining he was not interested.

———

“I was brought up in a certain way. There is no bad job, the only bad job is not having a job.” — Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in May after introducing reforms to Employment Insurance that redefine suitable employment.

———

“We have operated 100 years and we haven’t had this kind of problem and we’ve retained lots of agents and done thousands and thousands of projects around the world, so I think we have to put this into perspective.” — SNC Lavalin board chairman Gwyn Morgan in March in the wake of fraud allegations launched against senior executives of the company.

]]>Veteran cattleman George Graham has a common-sense solution for how to prevent a repeat of an E. coli outbreak and extensive product recall in the fall that made 18 people sick, threw thousands out of work and smeared the Canadian beef brand.

Officials who regulate and work in the industry must simply do their jobs properly.

“We have an extremely good product and we have a very good food-safety program compared to other places around the world,” Graham said from his feedlot in southern Alberta where his family has raised cattle since 1918.

“We just need to be more vigilant that the job is getting done.”

The manure hit the fan in early September when U.S. food inspectors found E. coli bacteria in a shipment of beef from the XL Foods plant in Brooks, Alta.

The U.S. quickly closed its border to beef from the plant, which slaughters up to 40 per cent of Canada’s cattle. Canadian officials then shut the plant down and sent 2,200 workers home.

In the weeks that followed, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency pulled back more than 2,000 products across the country involving millions of kilograms of beef — the largest meat recall in Canada’s history.

American food safety regulators announced a similar recall by XL Foods of its products in more than 30 states.

In the end, there were 18 confirmed cases of people getting sick in Canada from a specific and potentially deadly strain of E. coli linked to the XL Foods beef.

Canadian producers lost money as cattle prices fell and ranchers had to pay more to ship their cattle to other plants.

Millions of kilograms of beef from prime Canadian cattle was dumped in landfills or rendered into non-food products.

The company that once boasted of being the largest Canadian-owned beef plant turned over management of the Brooks plant to JBS USA, an affiliate of Brazil-based JBS SA, which has an option to buy the facility and other XL Foods holdings.

Professor Rick Holley, a University of Manitoba food safety expert, said there is no excuse for the sanitation problems that led to the closure of the Brooks plant.

He said Canada is respected around the world for its progressive food safety rules. The problem, he suggested, is that those rules are not as vigorously enforced as they should be.

How could 40 inspectors and six veterinarians at the XL plant somehow miss the problems?

“We see too much pressure being put on inspection staff to complete reports,” said Holley, who added that some inspectors need more training to effectively do their jobs.

“They just have to get better at the proactive end of things, a lot better.”

The responsibility for food safety also rests with company owners. Holley said managers and supervisors must set clear operating standards for hygiene and strictly enforce them.

Part of that responsibility is to ensure that workers, who are often immigrants who speak English as a second language, are fully trained to understand what is expected of them.

Workers must also feel comfortable about being able to speak up if they have concerns.

Holley said food safety in meat plants is everyone’s concern, but ultimately it is the federal food inspection staff that set the tone.

“There is a constant requirement for regulatory oversight, but that regulatory oversight must be viewed by the plant’s managers and staff as competent,” he said.

“When the activity doesn’t appear to be competent, then you end up with people taking shortcuts, and outcomes such as we have seen at XL Foods.”

How much damage did the recall and E. coli outbreak cause Canada’s beef industry, which is centred in Alberta, but includes cattle producers in every province? No one is quite sure.

Most of the beef that Canadians eat — almost 80 per cent — comes from cattle that are Canadian-born, bred and processed. Canada produces twice the amount of beef that it consumes. The rest is exported, mainly to the United States.

The slogan of the industry’s marketing arm, Canada Beef Inc., is “Quality That Inspires Confidence.”

Ron Glaser, a Canada Beef vice-president, said it appears that most consumers haven’t stopped eating beef. But shoppers are asking more questions about the beef they are buying.

“They want to know what plant it is from,” he said from Calgary. “They are going to want to know, basically, is it safe?”

To reassure consumers, the industry is developing an information campaign that it is expected to roll out in the new year, Glaser said.

It is likely to include information on how producers take care in raising cattle and an assurance that Canada has an extremely safe food system.

The XL Foods fiasco will be cast as an exception, not the rule.

“It is unfortunate that there are occasionally problems like this,” Glaser said. “It is unfortunate that this will potentially tarnish a broader industry.”

On Oct. 29, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency cleared the Brooks plant to resume slaughtering cattle and packaging beef. Products have since been allowed to be shipped again to retailers. XL Foods has also been given permission to resume exports to the United States.

Despite a seeming return to normalcy, some ranchers warn it will take time for the industry to recover.

“Are we making ends meet? Just barely, as we are still playing catch-up for the years that we did not get a decent price for our calves during the BSE years and we had to use all our resources to keep ranching,” said Eileen Juhasz, who has 150 head on her ranch south of Lethbridge.

The CFIA has said there was no single factor that caused the E. coli outbreak in Brooks. Problems included deficiencies in bacteria control, sanitation and record-keeping.

The federal government has promised a complete review of what happened and to make its final report public, including possible recommendations to improve food safety.

“Certainly we take this to heart and don’t want to see these kind of issues happen, but we’ll never apologize for the size and the scope of the recall. If that’s what’s required, that’s what we’ll do,” Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz told The Canadian Press.

The federal government is also putting its faith in JBS USA, the company that’s now managing the Brooks plant.

“JBS is a tremendous corporate partner,” Ritz said. “They brought an era of food culture to that plant that we haven’t seen for quite some time so we look forward to them and moving on to the future.”

Cattleman George Graham is also bullish on JBS and hopes the international food giant will buy the XL Foods plant.

He said business at his South Slope Feeders feedlot outside of Brooks is picking up. He recalled how the industry bounced back from the financial upheaval caused by the mad cow disease scare a decade ago.

“We have seen a lot of hurdles thrown at us the last 10 years and we’ve managed to survive some pretty big ones,” he said. “I don’t think this is going to be any different.”

]]>http://www.macleans.ca/general/cfia-xl-foods-and-the-year-the-manure-hit-the-fan/feed/0The five biggest campus news stories of 2012http://www.macleans.ca/education/uniandcollege/the-five-biggest-campus-news-stories-of-2012/
http://www.macleans.ca/education/uniandcollege/the-five-biggest-campus-news-stories-of-2012/#commentsMon, 24 Dec 2012 21:21:43 +0000http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/?p=49846From the turmoil of Quebec to the rise of the West

It was a record year for Maclean’s On Campus with more readers than ever, but perhaps that’s unsurprising considering how much there was to talk about. Based on clicks and comments, here are the top five campus news stories of 2012.

1. Quebec student groups helped toss a government and won a tuition freeze.

In March, Quebec student groups declared war on a planned tuition hike of roughly $2,000 over five years. By April, students at 11 of Quebec’s 18 universities and 14 of its 48 CEGEPs had declared “strikes” and were skipping classes. There were nightly marches in Montreal that made life miserable for many who lived and worked downtown. Students who dared go to classes, even after judges orders allowing them to return, were stopped by masked protesters. The nightly marches started turning violent and threatened the tourism industry. Something had to be done.

The turning point was Bill 78, the so-called “emergency law” passed by Jean Charest’s government on May 18. The law included big punishments for blocking access to classes, but provisions that required police notification for protests were seen by some as an assault on civil liberties.

In the 2013 Maclean’s University Rankings, every university from Saskatchewan to the Pacific Ocean maintained or improved its standing. Most impressively, all four of British Columbia’s ranked universities—the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the University of Northern British Columbia and the University of Victoria—placed in the top two in their categories.

That said, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada still have many impressive institutions. McGill University in Quebec ranked first in the Medical Doctoral category, and the University of Toronto was third. Ontario’s University of Waterloo was third in the Comprehensive category and Mount Allison University in New Brunswick was first again in the Primarily Undergraduate category.

5. Law school and teacher’s college lost their lustre.

Our annual Professional Schools Issue posed the question: Should articling be scrapped? It’s funny to think that law schools would even contemplate this, but there were suddenly so many law students that large numbers couldn’t find the 10-month placements they needed to graduate.

]]>http://www.macleans.ca/education/uniandcollege/the-five-biggest-campus-news-stories-of-2012/feed/1Saskatchewan: The ‘it’ place to behttp://www.macleans.ca/general/saskatchewan-the-it-place-to-be/
http://www.macleans.ca/general/saskatchewan-the-it-place-to-be/#commentsSun, 23 Dec 2012 01:47:39 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=329743Booming economy makes land of living skies a place to set down roots

For diners in the northwest Regina restaurant, it’s mouthwatering. For chef and owner Brett Huber, it’s a dream come full circle.

“When I was growing up, all I wanted to do was get out of here, but now that I’m back it’s like this is where I want to be,” he said.

Huber was born and raised in Regina. He moved to Vancouver when he was 24 for culinary school and worked around British Columbia, as well as in England.

But home was calling.

“I wanted to start a family and I wanted to basically start a restaurant.”

Huber and wife, Kristi, moved to Regina in 2007 — about the time Saskatchewan became the “it” province, the place to be in Canada.

People from every part of the country were flocking in. Statistics Canada figures showed at the time that Saskatchewan’s population growth in 2007-08 was the strongest since the early 1970s. For the first time, the province led the pack when it came to interprovincial migration.

Employment was strong and a booming economy — bolstered by potash, oil and gas — made Saskatchewan a rags-to-riches story.

“Unknown to me, the boom was happening while I was away. Immediately once I got back to Regina I realized there was a much different feel here in the province,” recalled Huber.

“It was an exciting time to be in Regina and Saskatchewan, for that matter.”

In 2008, it appeared the boom might be over. The recession dragged down economies around the globe.

Premier Brad Wall warned in March 2010 that Saskatchewan — the province that initially defied the economic downturn — would have to make tough decisions to balance its upcoming budget. The government was facing a challenge because of plummeting revenue from potash, a pink mineral used in fertilizer.

Resource prices are still soft and are affecting Saskatchewan’s bottom line. A budget update released in November noted a drop of more than $400 million in potash and oil revenue. However, the government is forecasting a small surplus and Wall is quick to note that Saskatchewan was the only province to present a balanced budget this year.

The premier said in a year-end interview with The Canadian Press that the recession forced the government to be more cautious with spending.

But he said there’s evidence that the land of living skies is still where people want to set down roots.

Census data released last February by Statistics Canada shows the population in the metropolitan area of Regina increased by eight per cent since the last census in 2006. Saskatoon, the largest city in the province, increased in numbers by 11.4 per cent.

“We can look at the number of people that continue to move here. We have 80,000 people over the last five years and we sort of pushed over some important records on population growth this year,” said Wall.

“We see investment. We see companies like Mosaic declaring their Canadian headquarters and moving 80 to 100 jobs here to the capital city.

“So you don’t have to take the government’s word for it. We’re still the ‘it’ province because people are voting with their feet and companies are voting with their investment.”

Mosaic, one of the world’s leaders in potash crop nutrients, is to be the lead tenant in a new office tower that opened in Regina on Dec. 7. It’s the first new office tower in the capital in 20 years.

While there might be more office space, housing has been a problem since Saskatchewan’s economy took off.

Prices have soared since 2007 and rental units are in demand as more people move to the province. Regina, at one per cent, has the lowest vacancy rate of all major centres in Canada.

For the first time, a homeless shelter has been established in the city of Estevan, a hub of oil and gas activity in southeast Saskatchewan near the U.S. border.

Brenna Lea Nickel, a minister with St. Paul’s United Church, said jobs are a big draw.

“What we’re seeing is that folks are coming from all over the country and in some cases even from the United States. They seem to get the word that, OK ,there’s lots of jobs to be had in Estevan, but they’re not getting the word that there isn’t any short-term or affordable housing,” said Nickel.

“I shouldn’t say not that there isn’t, but it can’t keep up with the growing population.”

Brenna said the Salvation Army estimates as many as 15 people are sleeping in their cars each night and as many as 40 people could be sleeping outside or couch surfing.

“Most of these people are coming from a home in some way and are hoping to make a better start here and just don’t realize until they get here that it’ll be so hard to find some place to stay.”

Despite the housing challenges, reports suggest that Saskatchewan is on solid footing.

The Conference Board of Canada said in its provincial outlook for autumn 2012 that the western provinces remain in the best position to ride out the current global economic weakness.

It also said that for the most part, western Canadian provinces have been relatively shielded from the fiscal and economic troubles lingering in external markets. The economies of Saskatchewan and Alberta in particular have performed strongly, and their near-term prospects are more favourable than those for the rest of the country.

“There’s opportunity here and there might not be that opportunity elsewhere,” said Wall.

“There’s a quality of life here so if people come check out the province, they’ll know that there’s an excellent education system and in health care, we’re trying to make the improvements we need so that people aren’t on wait lists as long as they used to be.

“I think it’s the whole package,” Wall added.

Huber said the opportunity to open Jack Keaton’s, which is named for his two eldest children, a year ago was both “scary” and “exhilarating.”

Huber believes moving back and starting the restaurant were good decisions.

“People are optimistic about what the future holds here” he said.

“Years ago, it was quite the opposite. It was people were just depressed and, you know, ‘Nothing ever changes here.’ This was the last place in the world to get any great news.

“It’s very evident now that people are moving to the province instead of moving away.”